ABSTRACT
It is astounding how much people consume. For example, in 2014, the American toy market grew to a value of $18.1 billion (Toy Association, 2015). In 2013, the coee shop industry in the United Kingdom was worth £5.8 billion, and over 74 million units of LCD TVs were sold in Asia. Moreover, in 2015, 74 million automobiles were sold worldwide (Statista, 2015). With gures such as the aforementioned, it is hardly surprising that what people consume plays a key part in their lives. Consumerism is hardly a new concept. At rst glance, historically it appears that people have been interested in consuming for as long as they have existed. From a survival point of view, this is almost obvious, because early humans would have to have been interested in feeding and clothing themselves, providing shelter etc. in order to survive. These processes would have involved what might be termed “natural consumption”. By natural, we are implying that the consumption came from readily available resources. Food was provided for by hunting and gathering; shelter was fashioned from resources already existing in the ecosystem, for example cave-dwellings or huts built from branches and woven reeds. This “natural consumption” provided the minimum for survival. It was literally living “hand-to-mouth”. The step-change, of course, was the development of farming.
